Paradox Pinot Noir - Zero Alcohol (NV)

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Recently I heard from friends and colleagues that the quality of alcohol free wine had dramatically improved. Given I had set the challenge to my wonderful wife that we attempt to get through a dry May (well mostly dry), it seems that now is an excellent opportunity for us to face the challenge. So we set about searching to see if we could find an alcohol free wine that we would be happy to drink.

Given a strong preference for Pinot Noir it was of course the first wine I sought out. Pinot Noir is a tricky wine to master, which means that there is a lot of ordinary pinot grape juice out there. The difference between premium quality wine and supermarket cordial is vast and wine that has been produced and then had the alcohol removed is unlikely to have the delicate characteristics, length and body you expect of a fine wine.

So enter first candidate off the blocks Paradox Pinot Noir noting that the bottle does not offer any vintage I just qualified it as non vintage (though it does offer a best before date of August 2024). The bottle offers the following description..

Like the paradox of life, an infinite mystery, this is like no other. Seemingly bold, yet irresistibly delicate, this pinot noir has had the alcohol gently removed and remains full of flavour. Lively aromas of strawberry and red cherry with delicious spice and red berry fruit flavours
back of the bottle

I thought lets get the good burgundy glassware out to ensure we give this wine the very best chance and poured our a couple of healthy serves as we sat in front of a nice fire on a Sunday evening. The first observation was how dark it was for a Pinot Noir, it looked almost like a Shiraz though the viscosity was more like water of course with the alcohol removed. The nose was light some hints of fruit perhaps plums but I could not smell any spice. First taste was a bit of a shock, (I am afraid to say I made a cats bum face, screwing my nose up and saying ‘I don’t like it’) it tasted on the first sip a bit like a mixture of grape, raspberry and sour plum juice. Both sweet and sour but not integrated and no length to speak of. There were no tannins or spice evident but a fair amount of acid.

We decided to give the wine its best chance to shine we should explore it with food, so lovely wife went and got some cheese, cornichons, apricots, olives and crackers to see if that helped the wine. Actually it made a significant difference and the wine went from undrinkable in my eyes to an almost acceptable accompaniment to our meal (slow roasted goat with sweet potatoes). In the end we finished the bottle, so experiment successful, but how do you rate such a wine? I went to Vivino to see what pundits there had to say and the review was 3.4 stars (based on 26 ratings), people were describing it as “sweet, fruity and easy to drink”.

Ultimately alcohol free wines are not even close to the same league as the premium wines we usually review, but they are a necessary evil as we consider the health benefits of staying off the grog during the week and the occasional dry month (Feb Fast, OkSober and Maybe May). The bottle tells us the grapes come from South Australia and that the company is based at the same address as Cellar Masters and head office of Beer Wine & Spirits (BWS).